Am I a Spiritual Adult?

Recognizing a Spiritual Adult

Desire to serve for others’ good and the glory of God.

Desire to serve but not strategic about how to train others.

Naivety about how well other believers are doing—for example, they believe that others are on fire for Jesus because everyone seems to be “fine” at church.

Things Spiritual Adults Say…

“I think I could lead a group study with a little help. I have some friends that I have been witnessing to, and I think it would be good for them to study the Bible with a small group of friends.”

“Look how many are at church today—it’s awesome! I had to walk from the far end of the parking lot this morning…I had to hunt a different seat in the church because mine was taken by a guest.”

“In my devotions, I came across something I have a question about.”

“I want to start a team of people that go and check in on the old folks at our church.”

Spiritual Adults Need…

Help finding an appropriate ministry to serve in within the church.

Ongoing relationships with other believers that offer encouragement and accountability.

Assistance in identifying their gifts.

Spiritual adults serve others to build up the church and to bring others into the church.

1 Peter is written to Christians who have been spread out across the Roman world through widespread persecution.

Peter writes to encourage them to stand firm in their faith. He keeps urging them to keep their focus on Christ — what He has done for them — who they are in Him.

In chapter 2, Peter writes to remind them of who they are as a body of believers.

Christianity is not a solo sport—it’s a team sport. We need others to be successful in the call that God has given to us.

Spiritual adults understand this and have moved from being self-focussed to being God-focussed and others-focussed.

They’re not just studying God’s Word to develop themselves, but to pour into others around them.

This morning we’re going to look at the habits of healthy spiritual adults. Spiritual adults study God’s Word passionately, serve others in harmony, and proclaim the Gospel gratefully.

1 Peter 2:1–10 “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

1. Spiritual adults study God’s Word passionately.

Peter contrasts an attitude of revenge and hatred with one that is focussed on God. They were focussed on the atrocities that were happening to their brothers and sisters in Christ and probably wishing they could come up with a way to get back at the world. But Peter writes to encourage them to stay focussed on the mission.

Don’t long for revenge, God will take care of that. You long for the pure milk. Pure food. Revenge and hatred are bitter poison for your soul. But God’s Word, fellowship with God in His Word is soothing like milk to a baby.

Peter just finished talking about the Word of God remaining forever and he carries this over in his reference to spiritual milk.

Spiritual adults are studying God’s Word passionately. They are longing for it because they know it will help them grow. They long for it because they have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. They have seen His faithfulness in their lives. They have benefited from the promises found in Scripture that seemed to come at just the right time.

I don’t want to spend too much time on this because we have hit this in some way almost every week, but you need to be dedicating yourself to the reading and studying of God’s Word.

2. Spiritual adults serve others in harmony.

Verse 5 talks about this spiritual house and a holy priesthood. To understand this we need some back story.

In the OT, it was understood in all cultures that you could not come to straight to your god. God made it clear to Israel that you could not come straight to Him.

The Temple, or the Tabernacle, was the place where God would be worshipped. And even then, not all were allowed in the holiest parts of the temple. That was reserved the the priests and the high priest.

But the writers of the NT made it clear that Jesus is now our temple, the place where we come to worship God. And Jesus is now our High Priest, the one through Whom we can come to worship God.

And Peter moves it a step forward, because in Christ, we are now temples and priests bringing God to the lost and the lost to God.

We are bridging the gap. God called what Israel should be, and what the church is meant to be as “repairers of the breach”.

Being built together is not merely a passive action as if God is just making this happen. There is an action that is leading to this unification of God’s people.

“As you come to Him, a living stone…the cornerstone…”

Harmony among believers comes from realizing we are following the same Savior who has given us all the same mission.

We’re all following Christ. That’s what unites us. We can choose to get all caught up in all the nuances of other denominations and insult them. Or we can figure out how we can work together, so long as they have not added anything to the Gospel.

If they believe they are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, we can move forward.

We’re building the same thing. We may hold the hammer a little differently or use a different brand of drill, but we are all building the same thing the same way.

God is not pleased with the service of a church if it is done in disunity.

It is through this building together that we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.

And these spiritual sacrifices is the body looking for ways to serve others in harmony.

Sometimes that means being okay with not getting your way. Look at the greater good of the Kingdom of God.

So we need to pursue harmony in the church. And we need to be serving in the church together. If you are in harmony but not serving in anyway there is a disconnect. If you are choosing to serve, but you’re not in harmony, there is a disconnect.

The early church grew because people from all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs came to follow Christ and worked together in spite of all of their differences. They realized that they needed each other to grow in their walk with Christ, and they chose to move forward together in humility never insisting their own way above another’s.

Spiritual adults serve others to build up the church and to bring others into the church.

3. Spiritual adults proclaim the Gospel gratefully.

Jesus has become the cornerstone of their faith. And again this priesthood is brought up.

He called them chosen, royal, and holy.

This profound because Peter is writing to Jews and Gentiles. They are all included in this race. They are all descendants of royalty as children of God in Jesus Christ. And they are a holy nation. They are set apart. They are meant to be different.

Our difference is one way that we proclaim the Gospel to the world around us. Our uniqueness is what gives us a voice and an opportunity to speak with those who are lost. They see that we have something they do not.

Ultimately this leads to us actually telling others about Who Jesus is and what He has done to save us and them.

And we don’t have to be forced into doing this, we are overwhelmed with gratefulness. Verse 10 is actually a reference back to Hosea in the OT. Hosea named two of his children, “not my people” and “no mercy”. These were judgments on the people of God who were living in spiritual adultery.

Here Peter says that we used to be that way, but now we are not. Jesus has saved us and made us His people and give us His mercy.

This needs to be the Gospel we proclaim.

Sin separated us from God, we could not be with Him. We could not be His people.

But Jesus came and paid the punishment for the sin that separated us.

Now through faith in Christ and accepting His grace with humility we are saved from our sins and reconciled to God.

We were made to know God, separated by sin, but Jesus made a way for us to be with God again.

Are you growing into a spiritual adult?

Are you studying God’s Word passionately, serving others in harmony, and proclaiming the gospel gratefully?

Do you want to begin your journey of a disciple in following Christ?